Proposed Manchester Southern Hospital, Oxford Road, Manchester

This sketch approximately indicates the plan which Mr John Ely, architect, has designed at the request of the Committee for the proposed new buildings of the Manchester Southern Maternity Hospital. At present the hospital is situated in Clifford-street and Upper Brook-street, Chorlton-on-Medlock. Founded twenty-five years ago as a small dispensary in Grosvenor-street, the institution has gradually developed until after many extensions necessitated by the adoption of first one and then another branch of work, it has at length utterly outgrown its existing fabric. The building in which the Hospital for Women and Children is carried on was not constructed for hospital purposes, and its defects are stated to have become more and more prominent as greater demands have been made upon it by the administration of larger numbers of patients and by the increase in the amount as well as by the more critical character of the surgical work. The Maternity Hospital too is conducted in several old houses which have been adapted at considerable expense to their present object and here again the defective character of the buildings is a constant source of anxiety. As the out-patients departments, according to an arrangement meant to be temporary, are located in yet another building (which gives unsatisfactory accommodation) the series of inconveniences may be regarded as complete. Altogether the buildings as they do ** fifty-two beds have for some time been recognised as totally inadequate for the yearly increasing number of patients who urgently require treatment. Under the circumstances a site for a new building was recently offered free of cost beyond a low chief rent by the Council of Owens College. The site is in Oxford Road and faces Whitworth Park. It has a southerly aspect and is declared to be admirably adapted in every way for hospital purposes. The Committee have accepted the site and have decided to erect upon it entirely new hospital buildings. For this purpose a present outlay of about £12,000 is contemplated. An administrative block of buildings will be erected to face Oxford Road, the front elevation as shown in thw sketch being in red brick and terra-cotta. In suitable and convenient connection with this portion of the institution there will be a Hospital for Women, capable of being ultimately extended so as to contain 40 beds, a Hospital for Children to accommodate ultimately 40 beds and a Maternity Hospital to contain 40 beds. For the sake of economy, and for other reasons, the medical officers have recommended that the Maternity Hospital should be in as intimate a connection with the administrative department as the other portions and it will therefore be necessary to provide more accommodation for the nurses and female pupils in the central building than is likely to be occupied at the outset. With regard to the hospital itself, however, it is intended to erect at present only as much of the projected building as will actually be required. The plans will easily permit further extension, when that should be called for. Owing to the intimate relations which will be established between the Owens College and the Southern Hospital, it is considered desirable to construct model rooms in the hospital, suitable for both operations and clinical demonstrations. This applies to the departments for both women and children. In the women's department the need for a specially constructed room for certain serious operations has long been felt and this want will be supplied in the new hospital. ...... Report continues with appeals for the necessary funds to allow work to proceed. [Manchester Guardian Saturday 15 April 1893 Page 9 (sketch and article)]

Over a decade after the first sketch proposals had been prepared, there was renewed interest in building a new hospital on the site in Oxford Road overlooking Whitworth Park. In April 1904 an illustration appeared in the local press. However, a lack of finance would continue to be a problem. In 1902, Manchester Southern Hospital treated 5,806 patients and had a deficit of £582, resulting in the closure of parts of the women’s and children’s wards. Concern was already being expressed that the institution would find it difficult to meet the demands, when a new hospital was erected.

Further changes were also afoot. In November 1904 provisional agreement was reached for the amalgamation of St. Mary's in Whitworth-street West, and the Manchester Southern Hospital, Clifford-street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, which included the Maternity Hospital in Upper Brook-street. The terms of the amalgamation provided for the maintenance of St. Mary's Hospital in Whitworth-street West, and the new Southern and Maternity Hospital intended to be built in High-street, Oxford Road and York Place; under the name of the “St. Mary's Hospitals." The subtlety of the plural was of course lost; and confusingly, both establishments operated under the name of “St Mary’s Hospital” for much of the twentieth century.

With the opening of the new St Mary's Hospital in Oxford Street the Maternity Hospital finally closed. Construction of the new hospital was underway in 1907

Reference : Manchester Guardian Saturday 15 April 1893 Page 9 (sketch and article)
Reference : Manchester Courier Friday 22 April 1904 Page 9 with illustration.
Reference : Kelly Directory 1909 Topographical